Nottingham Contemporary has been awarded funding which will enable it develop visual art projects with young people. It is hoping to help over 1,000 young people (15-25 year olds) over the next few years, mainly from the deprived areas of Broxtowe, the Meadows and through the city’s NGY project. The end result will be a unique arts festival in 2015, with the young people both producing and curating the art.

Kay Hardiman, head of learning at the gallery, said: ” Art builds up young people’s confidence and gives them the ability to fulfil ambitions. There are so many difficult situations they’re facing both socially and economically – the horizon is looking bleak for many of them and, yet, if they can get involved with artistic projects, then we can start to develop their confidence.”

The work will be part of ‘Circuit’, a national young initiative involving Firstsite in Colchester, Mostyn in Llandudno, north Wales, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, the Wysing Arts Centre, Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge and The Tate in London. The ‘Circuit’ project was launched at Tate with the funders, the Paul Hamyln Foundation, who have donated £5million towards the project.

Jane Hamlyn, chair of the foundation set up by her father, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Circuit, as a national youth initiative, working through a group of fantastic organisations including Tate, with high ambitions for reaching and opening up the arts to so many young people in the UK.”

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Jagdish Patel is a Nottingham based photographer and a Director at the Nottingham Photographers’ Hub a social enterprise helping vulnerable communities enter the creative sector.

Jagdish Patel

Jagdish moved up here from London in 2002. He put his past experience of working with different communities to use by setting up the Nottingham Photographers’ Hub, which uses photography to help vulnerable communities, and continues to write and work with different campaigning groups in London. He also runs a commercial photography practice in Nottingham city centre, and is part of the Blank Atlas art collective. He spends his time cycling, taking photographs, listening to rap, and writing.

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